- 3 - 
(Trip to Constanza and Neighborhood Cont’d. ] 
were not yet producing much. 2he iniiiibitants knew the crossbill. 
So litaries were common, as everyudiere in the hills, so v;as Ilyetornis. 
Pigeons were common but shy. They were our great stand by for the pot 
as chickens were scarce, and poi'k not often obtainable. 
Iday 3, 1S19. 
Ve marched six miles to a place called Hondo down in the bottom by 
the Rio Grande. The village of Hondo Abajo (5 houses) was half a mile 
low'er down. The climate much warmer here. We camped in a small grassy 
clearing, surrounded by thick scrub, on a bluff overlooking the river, by 
the ruins of a hut where some Americans engaged in cutting cedar (Juniperus 
bar badens i s ) had lived some thirty years previously. Pigjeors were 
plentiful, coming to drink at some salt spring. 
The people here bad much more food to sell, batales, nlantains, esps, 
etc. Swifts of three species and nightjars tv/o or three species were 
numerous, in the evenings. I shot three black swifts, and missed two or 
three shots at nightjars, some of which may have been Microsiphornis. 
There v/ere several kinds besides Son Juans, (Nyctibius) which we heard 
regularly. 
The clearing was very small and thick scrub all around so 
it was a poor place to shoot, and I shot very badly as usual. One or two 
big swifts were shot and lost. 
Ground doves (Oreopelia leucoroetopius ) 
v/ere not com^non and we only shot one pair, and saw £ or 3 others. One of 
my boys had shot a young one at Constanza, but it was too badly shot to 
skin. The nightjar 1 fired at twice had a very peculiar flight reminding 
me of an rn.usti's lian boomerang. The sma.ll area of cleared ground a.nd the 
river gorge right alongside v;ould Lave made shooting difficult for even a 
good shot at any of these evening birds. 
Possibly one v/ould have done 
